U.S. fintech Stripe valued at $20 bln in latest funding round

Sept 26 (Reuters) - U.S. payments firm Stripe said on Wednesday it has raised $245 million in a new round of funding, valuing the company at $20 billion.

Stripe will use the funds to improve its key areas, including rapidly expanding its international reach and growing its global payments and treasury network, the company said.

The company also said it hopes to tap the growing use of ecommerce, mainly in southeast Asia and India.

Stripe, which was valued at about $9 billion in late 2016, said on Wednesday it added Alphabet Inc’s Google, Uber Technologies Inc and Spotify Technology SA as its customers.

In July, the Silicon Valley startup partnered with digital payment providers Alipay and WeChat Pay to enable merchants using its platform globally to accept payments from hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers.

Founded by brothers John and Patrick Collison in 2010, Stripe provides technology that enables merchants in 25 countries to accept payments online. It charges a fee on each payments transactions processed through its platform.